


Idle Hands Are the Devil's Workshop

by Le_kunokimchi



Series: Prancing Around Insanity's Lot [3]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: BAMF Klaus Hargreeves, Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves Friendship, Ben Hargreeves Lives, Ben Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Blood and Gore, Dark Humor, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Gen, Good Sibling Ben Hargreeves, Graphic Description of Corpses, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Torture, Klaus Hargreeves Needs Help, Other, Protective Ben Hargreeves, Sober Klaus Hargreeves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:09:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24772174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Le_kunokimchi/pseuds/Le_kunokimchi
Summary: “When I asked where-”“Demanded,” Klaus corrected, throwing back a lazy grin at his brother while maintaining his steady stride down the street.Ben deadpanned before crossing his arms in an attempt to warm himself. “Fine, when I ‘demanded’ where you wandered off to every night, this is definitely NOT what I had in mind.”The medium snorted as he leaned back into his hands, them being placed comfortably behind his head. “Guess this’ll teach you to not be so quick to accuse little ol’ me, hm?” he tsked.“It was a reasonable assumption! You snuck out to clubs and bars in the last timeline so-”“But this isn’t the last timeline,” Four was quick to interrupt, his tone losing its previous mirth, “And I’ve never felt so attuned with my surroundings in my entire life.”Oh if only Number Six knew how truly "attuned" his brother was...
Relationships: Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves
Series: Prancing Around Insanity's Lot [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1779967
Comments: 18
Kudos: 335





	Idle Hands Are the Devil's Workshop

**Author's Note:**

> I realized I can't really put the post-canon tag anymore since the synopsis for season two was released and literally ALL of my theories were WRONG.  
> I'm very proud of this work. Really, really proud. Two weeks of writing, lots of planning... This is probably my darkest one yet but starts out pretty good-natured. I hope you enjoy~

“When I asked where-”

“Demanded,” Klaus corrected, throwing back a lazy grin at his brother while maintaining his steady stride down the street.

Ben deadpanned before crossing his arms in an attempt to warm himself. “Fine, when I ‘demanded’ where you wandered off to every night, this is definitely NOT what I had in mind.”

The medium snorted as he leaned back into his hands, them being placed comfortably behind his head. “Guess this’ll teach you to not be so quick to accuse little ol’ me, hm?” he tsked.

“It was a reasonable assumption! You snuck out to clubs and bars in the last timeline so-”

“But this isn’t the last timeline,” Four was quick to interrupt, his tone losing its previous mirth, “And I’ve never felt so attuned with my surroundings in my entire life.”

Six rolled his eyes. He wasn’t in the mood for Klaus’s attitude; it was cold, way too late to be taking a stroll through the city, and he still had no idea where they were going!  
“Ok, sorry, I get it: you’re not high. But in my defense, I never accused you of being on drugs. I would have noticed if you were. I just thought that you were… you know-”

“Looking for my next sexual escapade?”

“I-” Ben hadn’t wanted to sound so doubtful of his brother’s priorities, or be so blunt about his suspicions… but honestly, there was really no other way to put it. “Yeah. Yeah, I assumed you were hooking up with some shady-”

“Pedophiles?” Klaus smirked, not having to meet his brother’s eyes to know that was definitely NOT going to be his choice of words.

He scowled and whined, “For fuck’s sake, Klaus, I get it: I was wrong and the idea was outlandish! Can we please just go home now?”  
“Nope,” the taller lad replied, popping the ‘p’, “You wanted proof, I’m gonna give you proof; no use in getting cold feet now.”  
The Asian huffed in annoyance, wrapping his jacket tighter around his torso. “But I don’t care anymore! I believe you: you weren’t getting into trouble-”  
“Well… I wouldn’t say that-”  
“Fine! You weren’t clubbing and getting drunk! You happy now?”

They walked in silence for a few moments, as if Klaus was actually contemplating turning back. Ben could only hope and pray that the medium was just as cold and tired as he was, especially since he was freaking barefoot and thoughtlessly prancing upon the asphalt of the road like a madman. Sure, it was dumb to assume that his brother did anything relatively normal in the middle of the night, but at least he had enough common sense to use the sidewalk for crying out loud. It was only slightly relieving that no cars have come by in a while. 

The quiet, or as quiet as a big city can really get, was finally broken as the medium asked, “Aren’t you even the slightest bit curious?”  
“Yeah like maybe an hour ago,” Ben scoffed, taking a quick glance at the looming shadows around him. He felt on edge; none of the buildings seemed familiar. “I don’t even know where we are.”  
He stiffened as Four giggled. “Of course you don’t, silly. That’s why I’m leading the way.”  
“And that’s precisely why I should be worried,” he muttered; his nose scrunched as he recalled all the times where Klaus had undoubtedly got himself lost wandering around in the dark. 

The boy appeared exasperated as he looked over his shoulder at him, like Ben was some petulant child following him around (which he kind of was, but he’ll ignore that).  
“Aw shush, Benny boo, you’re really putting a damper on things. Think of it as a little adventure!”  
Ben seemed disgusted and unamused. “I’d rather not die again, thank you-”  
“Oh wow,” he put a hand to his chest dramatically in faux hurt, “You wound me, dear brother.”  
Six continued to glare at him before Four drooped his shoulders and sighed, “You won’t die, you big baby. It’s just a little further and then after I show you, we can run back to our miniature prison for some hot chocolate and eggos.”  
His lips quirked up at that; a cup of hot chocolate did sound pretty nice right about now.

The sounds of cars in the distance became louder as they went, a stark contrast to the appearance of the street before them that was ironically still empty. Every time a particularly loud engine would roar to life, the once-ghost would find himself scan frantically up and down the street for an indication that the vehicle might hit Klaus. They never did because, as Ben soon found out, they were on the freeway below them. Now how he didn’t notice that he was traveling on an incline directly above a busy roadway, he’s not really sure, but the whirring of tires now seemed to encompass them completely despite the late hour. 

As he racked his brain for any kind of sign that may have suggested this turn of events, he didn’t notice that his brother had joined him on the sidewalk until he walked straight into his back.  
Ben blinked a few times, glancing around incredulously. “Here? This is what you wanted to show me?”

“Hm, not exactly,” he replied.  
Six followed his brother’s gaze before shaking his head immediately in veto. “Nope, no way. We’re not climbing that thing.”  
“Oh come on, lighten up-”  
“Let me rephrase: we can’t climb that thing.”  
“I’ve done it many times before-”  
“I can’t climb that thing.”

They were on an overpass that was held together by a network of cement and metal bars. One of said bars connected from the bottom of the overpass to a building on the other side of a closed-off exit of the freeway. By the looks of it, whatever Klaus wanted him to see was on the roof of that building. It was a freaking death wish. 

“Once we get to the start of it, we don’t even have to technically climb: we just slide down like it’s an inclined stripper pole.”  
“Over a fucking freeway?” Ben practically shrieked in disbelief, “Are you insane?!”  
Klaus blew a raspberry and rolled his eyes. “As long as you hold on, you’ll be fine. Quit being dramatic; the hard part is getting to the support beam…”  
“I can’t believe this; you’ve officially lost your mind. The drugs have finally fried your brain. What made you think this was a good idea? What even inspired you to wanna slide down a metal pole suspended over moving traffic? What were you even doing up here in the first place?”

“Hey; moving now, questions later.”

“Wha- moving?- Hell no! I’m not going with you! There’s no way on God’s green earth that I’ll step foot off this fucking cement bridge and that’s final!” He crossed his arms and tilted his chin up in defiance to add to his point. Hm… maybe he really was a petulant child.  
Four just peered at him for a few seconds before shrugging and shuffling his way over to the edge of the overpass. “Fine, suit yourself.”

“Ha! Great- wait... where are you going?”

Klaus huffed a laugh, hoisting a leg over the rail. “To my secret spot, duh.”  
“Wait really?” Ben’s eyes widened in fear as he stared. “You’re just gonna leave me here?!”  
“Well yeah, you know the way home, don’t you? I won’t be gone long- Probably before three, I think.” He surveyed the traffic briefly before adding, “Hm, make that three-thirty.”

“I- Uhhh.”

Confliction was evident on the smaller boy’s face as he glanced warily from his brother to the ominous road they came from. He didn’t want to walk home alone (if he could even remember his way back) and he didn’t want Klaus to have to walk home that late at night either. Of course, it wasn’t helping that his brother was literally sitting on the brink of the overpass as if he was waiting for any last-minute changes of heart. 

“Klaus, you can’t really be serious…”  
But the boy just laughed in response as he switched positions on the rail and disappeared over the edge.  
“Wait! Klaus!” Ben hollered in alarm as he scrambled towards the ledge and stared down at the blurs of rushing cars. “Klaus? Klaus?!”

More laughter rang beneath him, distantly echoing against the metal beams, before Four popped his head out from under the cement with a wide grin. “Geez, Benny,” he said with a scornful roll of his eyes, “I told you I’ve done this plenty of times; es ist ein Stück Kuchen!”

“Just please… don’t- don’t hurt yourself.”

Klaus’s gaze softened, that concerned over-protective-mother-look on his brother’s face all too familiar. “For you, Bennifer, anything.”  
“I’m serious, Klaus. I don’t want to have to stare at an ugly statue of you for the rest of my life.” He shivered in disgust at the mere thought.

The soft look in Four’s eyes disappeared immediately, being replaced with a glare. “Oh please, like Reggie would ever build a statue of me. I’d probably only get the words ‘In disappointing memory of Number Four’ engraved onto a pencil or some shit.”  
Ben laughed, somewhat mirthful and somewhat nervously at the fact that they’re having this conversation while one of them is literally hanging over speeding cars.  
“L-Let’s not find out.”

A hand appeared from under the ledge, reaching out for his brother’s. “Join me, Benjamin. Let’s live a little.”  
“I don’t know if I’d count this as living…” Six replied, gulping as he eyed the distance between the cars and the bottom of the bridge.  
“And life at the academy is?” Klaus questioned with a raise of a brow. Ben shrugged. “Well damn. If we both survive this, we really need to have a talk about your definition of living.”  
“Um let’s see: breathing, eating, touching, sleeping-”  
“Metaphorically, you nerd! I meant metaphorically,” he interrupted with a frown, “But nevermind that; let’s just go now. Unless you want me to call you an octopussy for the rest of-”  
“Nope! Nope… I’m coming.”

Ben closed his eyes and took a deep breath before grabbing his brother’s hand and shimming down the other side of the rail. As he reached the ledge and swung himself up onto the thin rectangular beam Klaus was perched upon, he asked, “Do you think any of the people driving can see us?”  
The boy glanced upwards in thought before settling on, “Doubtful. There are no street lamps up here and not a soul is driving on this so...” He shrugged. “Most people out here driving this late at night are delirious from sleep deprivation anyways. I wouldn’t worry about it too much.”

The other just nodded, eyeing his brother gracefully make his way across the beam as if it wasn’t only a foot wide. “So uh… where to now?” Ben asked, feeling a little queasy as he looked down without thinking. He tried to swallow the bile rising in his throat (Or was it the Horror that was twisting in his stomach?) 

Klaus smiled, shifting back a few steps to tug him by the hand. “This way, Benji.”

They slowly navigated their way towards the baleful-looking pole, Klaus keeping a firm grip on his brother’s hand and stopping every now and then to steady themselves. It was simple; just one foot after the other. Yet while Four made it look easy and carried himself with a hauntingly articulate poise, Ben was shaky and feared that exhaling too hard would throw off his balance.

“I don’t like this, I don’t like that, I don’t like you,” The Asian nervously rambled, his voice thick with regret and anxiety.

Four paid no mind to the complaining, just giving a curt, “Too late to back out now.”  
“I know, I know,” Six huffed, squeezing his brother’s hand tighter, “I can’t believe I’m actually doing this! I never should have followed you out here...”

“Suck it up, buttercup; it’ll be an eventful night, I swear-” Klaus cut himself off with a sharp inhale, “Well then... this might be a problem.”

Immediately Ben’s head was darting forward to look over his brother’s shoulder, eyes wide and alert. “Problem? What problem? Why is there a fucking prob-”  
“Benny: my dearly beloved brother, my guardian angel, my favorite sibling, my partner in crime,” Klaus said, his tone much too calm and sickeningly gentle to be genuine, “If you do not shut the fuck up for just one teensy-weensy-itty-bitty moment,” he squinted his eyes and raised his voice an octave higher for emphasis, “I will not hesitate in making your life a living hell.”  
“But don’t you already-”  
“Unintentionally. Would you like to see me actually try?” He looked back with a much-too-toothy grin and a darkness in his eyes that made Ben instantly swallow any sort of retort that was waiting readily on the tip of his tongue.  
Six shook his head vehemently.  
“Wise choice,” Klaus’s cat-like smile softened before he turned back around, “Now take off your jacket.”

Ben opened his mouth to object, it practically became an instinct after listening to all of the stupid shit his brother has suggested, but thought better of it when he received a piercing glare in response. “Ok…” he muttered.  
“So, the pole is a little dewy from the cold,” Klaus explained, untying his academy jacket from around his waist, “And we wouldn’t want you losing your grip and falling to your second death, would we? So, and hear me out, we’re gonna drape our coats over it, grip either sleeve, and then use it to slide down Mulan style.”

He didn’t look convinced, nor did he appreciate that Klaus got his idea from a Disney movie… but he took off his coat anyways and chewed his bottom lip to keep from colorfully screaming about how much of a bad idea this was. Well, if he’s being honest, his idea to follow Klaus in the first place wasn’t the brightest either.  
His eyes full of concern as he watches Klaus prepare for descent, Ben asked: “What if it breaks?”  
“The pole is solid steel, it won’t break-”  
“No you moron, I mean our jackets. What if they tear or something?” Six exasperated with a roll of his eyes.  
There was an unsettling chuckle that escaped Klaus, not assuring in the slightest as one could imagine. There was something manicial in his green eyes as he blew Ben a kiss that sent shivers down the other boy’s spine. “Oh bless your worried little heart.” 

The Asian frowned. The condescending tone was not appreciated.  
“Daddy dearest only gives us the highest quality of material, mój mały kurczak. I doubt it’ll tear,” he added sweetly.  
“I hate it when you do that.”  
“Do what, Benny boo?”  
“Switch languages mid-sentence. I hardly know what you’re saying half of the time, even when it’s all in English. That one wasn’t even your typical German or Spanish brain-dump; how do you retain so much yet so little when it matters?” he jibed hopelessly. His brow was furrowed as he stared at his brother in confusion and annoyance.

Four giggled in that infuriatingly flippant way he does before spitting out a quick, “I was speaking Polish,” just as he jumped off the metal bar.  
Six yelped in surprise and watched in horror as Klaus glided through the air with a large grin on his face (and by watched he means peeking out from behind his fingers because this wild child he calls a brother is absolutely off his rocker and did he just yell whee? ).

By this point, Ben was positive that a driver saw that; there was no way that anybody with open eyes could deny seeing a thirteen-year-old boy enthusiastically use the overpass support beam as his own personal zipline. He literally just FLEW over half a freeway, somebody had to have noticed! Oh geez, this is so pointless and stupid; what were they going to do now? Somebody is going to most definitely call the cops and they are going to show up and see two teenagers in some restricted area at like one in the morning with gaudy uniforms and all-telling umbrella tattoos and then they were going to get Reginald involved and oh shit he was going to give them personal training as punishment and Ben would never be allowed near Klaus again and-

A loud panging noise caused his downward spiral of thoughts to halt, jumping in fright before becoming even more terrified at the fact he just JUMPED on this THIN beam. He looks down the pole, seeing Klaus angrily shouting something at him from his spot safely on the rooftop. The panging, Six assumes, was from Klaus repeatedly smacking his lighter into it in an attempt to catch his attention (Ben knew he was probably even more pissed off now that his lighter is most likely dented and unusable- oh and Six was right: Four just chucked it off to the side).  
He can do it, no problem...right? And if he died, well, at least Klaus was better with his powers now… (the grimness of that thought made him dry-heave).  
“Here goes nothing,” he squeaked, gripping either sleeve with white knuckles as he slowly eased himself off the beam. 

The descent, shockingly, was not as fast as Ben originally assumed. Sure, the pole was inclined from the fact that the overpass was literally towering over a freeway, but it wasn’t an unbearably steep drop. If it wasn’t for the racing cars mere feet away from his small form, it would have been (dare he say) an enjoyable experience. But then a thought struck him as he came closer and closer to his destination, how was he supposed to stop?  
“Klaus!” He cried, thrashing his legs around, “Klaus how do I stop? How do I stop?!”  
“Just let go when you get over the building!” Four hollered back, his hands cupping around his mouth to ensure that his instructions traveled to the panicking boy’s ears.  
“What?! I’ll break an arm!”  
“Roll, man! Roll!”  
“I can’t- I CAN’T! KLAUS I’M SCARED! OH MY GOD I’M GONNA DIE AGAIN! WAHHHH!”  
“Ok hold on, hold on! I got you! I’ll catch yo- UGF!” Their bodies collided, sending both crashing to the ground in a mass of tangled limbs. Klaus wheezed, the air being knocked violently from his body and a dull ache working its way through his cranium.

They just laid there for a few moments, Ben not willing to move after his near-death(again) experience. Sure, Klaus’s bony body wasn’t exactly the most comfortable of cushions but at the same time, at least he knew he was safely on solid ground.  
“Ben?” Four asked softly, still sprawled out on the roof with his brother on top of him and a ribcage full of elbows, “Benny?”  
The boy groaned loudly.  
“Ben.” His tone now lacked its previous warmth; he was becoming irritated.  
“Hm?”  
“Can you get off of me?”  
“Oh!” Six scrambled to his feet, tugging his jacket off of Klaus’s face, “Yeah, sorry.”

The other released a content sigh as he stood and brushed himself off. “No, no… this was my bad. I guess I just assumed you’d know an opportunity for a superhero landing when you see one.”  
Ben sent him an icy glare. “There’s a reason they only happen in the movies.”  
Four rose his eyebrows incredulously. “Normally kids only get superpowers in the movies too, normally kids aren’t born at the same time on the same day to not impregnated women either. Face it, our whole life is a movie.”  
Six opened his mouth to retaliate but soon closed it when nothing came to mind. His brother had a point there. Nothing in their life was normal; he was a ghost only three short months ago, after all. But it was okay, just this once, that Klaus was right because he was already walking away before Ben could even register that he was being spoken to.

The Asian boy quietly joined him as he sat on the ledge of the building, looking slightly off to the right at something below them. He was going to ask if this was what he wanted him to see, but movement caught the corner of his eye. Following his brother’s gaze, Ben saw four men sitting at a chipped wooden table behind a warehouse. Beer cans littered the ground and there were a few rusty colored stains dotting the cement. The street light on the other side of the fence surrounding the warehouse illuminated them in a soft white glow, making their drunk and haggard appearances more noticeable to the naked eye. From up here, they had the perfect view of the sleazeballs and whatever activities they may or may not have been up to. Their slurred laughter could be heard vaguely through the noise of the traffic as one of them stumbled over their chair, unceremoniously slamming a pocket knife onto the tabletop. 

Six looked at his brother with a furrowed brow. Were they what Klaus wanted to show him? Or was there something else…? The look of amusement in the other’s eyes as he observed seemed to answer his question for him.  
“So… them? They’re the reason you disappear every night? To… what- Watch them?” It was meant to be a joke, a jab indirectly calling his brother a stalker of sorts, but it left him feeling uncomfortable when Four’s gaze didn’t even waver for a second.  
The smallest of smirks pulled on Klaus’s lips as he huffed a laugh. “Yeah. Quite the lively bunch, don’t ya think?”

Ben eyed him in concern. Sure, it was normal for the two of them to people-watch but this- this was a whole new level of creepy.  
“Well, I mean, they’re drunk so…”  
“Oh, I wasn’t talking about them.”  
Six just blinked, a chill suddenly running down his spine. He should have noticed before: the rusty stains, the pocket knife, the way Klaus’s eyes darted around the scene but never really focusing on any one individual.  
“Are there… Um…”  
“Dead people?” He smiled lightly, his green orbs unblinking, “Yeah. There’s quite a few. Seems like the Umbrella kids aren’t the only ones to have a ghastly entourage.”

Ben frowned. He didn’t like the reminder; the thought of being surrounded by bloody corpses only Klaus could see made him uncomfortable. "Are they really bad?"  
He nodded.  
"Those guys… they killed them?"  
He nodded again, his eyes lighting up in mischief as a fifth guy hopped over the fence and joined the group.  
"Why-"  
"It started with just walking down the sidewalk, looking at people, incorporating myself into everyday society. I kinda missed it, ya know? Life on the streets, surrounded by interesting people, a new adventure every day." His face took on a reminiscent gaze, his fingers tapping his kneecap gingerly, "But then I remembered that I'm sober and some of the most eye-catching of people I was seeing in the crowds were… dead."  
Six shifted, crossing his legs to get more comfortable as he had a feeling that this was going to be something he'd want to pay attention to. 

“Everybody’s got their demons so who am I to judge when I see people walking around with a trail of victims following in their wake? I mean, we have our fair share of red in our ledgers; even little Vanya has a body count now.”

Ben wasn’t sure if he likes where this conversation was going.

“So the murders, the rapists, the gangsters, the dealers… I let them go about their day; I pretend I don’t know their dirty little secrets. They’re not my problem, they haven’t affected my life at all; I refuse to use my cursed gift the way dear old papa has always wanted me too,” his gaze darkened with a familiar bitterness, as it always did when he spoke of his ‘untapped potential’ and their father’s expectations.  
From years of being by his brother’s side, Ben has learned that Klaus doesn’t like to be told what to do; he likes control over his own body, his own situation, his own powers. When people expected something from him or told him what they wanted him to do, he made it a point to do the opposite. Such as Ben telling Klaus to get sober, their Father telling him to dress and act like a proper boy, Allison telling him to give a valiant effort in rehab, Diego telling him to call him whenever he needed a place to stay, Luther telling him to take his life seriously, Vanya telling him that he should be grateful for his powers, Five telling him to open up about his time in Vietnam… Klaus was stubborn. He spent his whole life in the academy surrounded by things he couldn’t have a say in; he never wanted to be the look-out, he never wanted to be thrown into the mausoleum, he never wanted an umbrella tattoo, he never wanted to be haunted by his dead brother. But he got it all and he just had to deal with it. Running away, doing drugs, partying, drinking, hooking-up: they were all his choices. They were his decisions. And he wasn’t going to let anyone take that power away from him; just like becoming sober now was entirely his executive decision. 

“I let the cops do their jobs, I let karma work its magic. I’m not a hero, I never will be a hero.”  
There was a sudden expression that crossed Klaus’s face, one Ben has not seen on it before. It made his blood run cold, made his back stiffen into an impossibly linear position; the piercing look in his eyes was dangerously sardonic.

“But sometimes,” he pauses, a sixth guy with faintly crimson-stained hands now joining the posse of drunk individuals, and Ben gnaws on his bottom lip anxiously as his brother’s features twist into a sly smile, “Victims have odds stacked against their favor and I… have to shift the balance a little bit- shake up the playing field because cops are too apathetic to care about the kind of people these douchebags are targeting. You catch my drift?”

“K-Klaus-” Ben begins, finding himself swallow nervously, “Whatever it is you’re about to do-”  
“They have had it coming, Benny; long overdue,” he cuts him off, a fire burning in his olive-green irises as his eyes narrow into a predatory-like gaze, “They think that they’re so slick: killing junkies and prostitutes and bums; why would somebody ever go filing a missing person case on them? Why would a cop ever go looking for these victims? How would they ever get caught? Well… they thought wrong. Karma’s a bitch. She’s my bitch.”  
And then with a sharp flick of his wrist, his fingers ignite into a bright cerulean.

That’s when Ben hears it: the familiar moaning of the undead, followed by a crashing of something below them. And Ben doesn’t want to look, he really doesn’t… but the sick pleasure that’s radiating off of his brother as he grins enthusiastically at the chaos he has undoubtedly caused is even more disturbing.  
The moans grow louder, the shrieking of ghastly fury raising shouts of alarm from the living individuals; and Six watches as the blue glow encompasses both of Klaus’s hands and then slowly highlights every single one of his veins with disconcerting precision before erupting over the beautiful green of his irises. And Klaus huffs a laugh. He huffed a laugh as his eyes danced with amusement and Ben felt sick to his stomach. The Eldritch beast inside him churned in a threatened-like manner but also had a wary hum of approval for the atrocities taking place. And that- that honestly made the boy feel worse as he hesitantly tore his eyes away from his frightening brother to take in the gory scene before him.

There were screams; from both the living and not. There were dozens of glowing blue, horribly mutilated corpses ripping every piece of live flesh to shreds. Klaus said they were bad, but Ben didn’t assume THIS bad.  
Three hookers, dressed up in skanky tops and torn up bottoms, each had a hand around one of the guys’ throat, literally squeezing the life out of him; all three sported similar strangulation marks around their own necks and a pale, deoxygenated shade of purple to their lips. Six found the punishment hauntingly fitting.

There were five homeless: four men and one woman. They exhibited different levels of grimy, disheveled clothing ranging from matted and stained fur coats to worn out and faded jeans. The woman was repeatedly bashing one of the drunkard’s head into the warehouse wall, attempting to scream but only managing to get out nauseating gurgles due to all the blood continuously flowing from the slit in her neck. Two of the homeless men clawed and punched and kicked one fellow while the other two resorted to ravenously biting and crunching another.

There were seven more girls, Ben not being sure if they were prostitutes or just runaways from home, that were all adorned with slashes along their thighs and chests in a vulgar fashion who screamed and cried bloody-murder at the man who originally had the pocket knife. They all took turns using their wicked nails to slash away his innocence as well. It was a suited form of retribution.

Two elderly folks, both with a sagging side of their face and an uncoordinated saunter, shrieked out slurred words as they kicked the fifth drunkard’s face until his jaw hung uselessly at a crooked angle.

Ben counted ten junkies, some gaunt and sweaty with withdrawal, others with needles sticking out of their arms; one even had white powder sprinkling from his nostrils and a hemorrhaging crack along his forehead. The ghostly entourage did all the above to the sixth man, the coke addict cackling as he smacked his head upon the splintering wooden table. Number Six could assume that such action was also a fitting punishment.  
And all the while, Klaus hummed beside him, waving his hands languidly through the air like he was conducting some dark and twisted orchestra. He watched the anarchy unfold with sadistic content and grim satisfaction, relishing in the screams of agony from the living and casually filtering out the growls of his name from the other dead gathering at the commotion. 

And for the first time in Ben’s entire life, he feared his brother. He feared his capabilities. He feared his capacity for destruction. So much so, that he felt a tear roll down his cheek as he shook at the sickening grin on his brother’s face.  
So when the chaos below them begrudgingly died down and the light show subsequently ended, Ben could only sit and stare at Klaus in pure apprehension.  
Four turned towards him and his gleeful expression deflated with an exhausted sigh. “You weren’t supposed to be here when it happened; it wasn’t my intention to scare you.”  
“T-Then w-why… why tonight? Why did you bring me out here?”  
“I wanted to share with you my own little detective work. I’ve spent a lot of time following these guys around to find their hideout, ya know. I've come out here every night to-"  
"You could have called the cops," Six choked out, "Leave an anonymous tip."  
Klaus frowned. "I couldn't. I'd have no proof-"  
"But why watch them for a month? W-Why give them the opportunity to kill more people? Do you…" he trailed off, not wanting to finish his thought that most certainly questioned his brother's sanity and sickening fascination.  
"It's not like that. I needed to know how many of them there were so I waited… and watched. I needed to get them all in one go; if I picked off one at a time, the others would get suspicious and not come back to the meeting spot and then I'd lose them," Klaus explained, his eyes taking on a crazed look as he frantically tried to hold on to his brother's little faith in him. He couldn't lose Ben, he needed Ben. He needed him on his side. He needed him to see that he did seemingly wrong things for entirely right reasons.

"The authorities-" Ben sobs, becoming at a loss for words as his brother's hectically psychotic methods had some sense to them.  
"-Would have taken an even longer investigation and even more would have died," Klaus assures, his eyes locked onto him with a complete expression of sincerity, "I've wanted to give these scumbags exactly what they deserved for a long time… it just so happened that one time I bring you, all six of the drunken posse show up."  
He crosses his heart and gives a mock salute, "Purely coincidental. Scout's honor."

And then they hug and Ben reluctantly sighs into his brother's shoulder because he wants the comfort, he wants his brother to hold him because this may be the last time he ever does. And as they stand and begin their journey back home, Ben can't help but wonder how Klaus will react the next time one of his siblings do something he doesn't agree with and their own ghostly entourage appears readily available.


End file.
